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Social Empowerment Theory

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Empowerment theory The empowerment theory owes its articulation to the woks of Freire (1973, 1998). According to Robbins et al (2012), the theory of empowerment draws a range of its ideas and key themes from economic and political theory, sociology, the social work tradition and liberation theology. It is grounded on the conflict perspective model and it endorses social activism and consciousness raising. The concept of critical consciousness is particularly essential for personal empowerment because it enlights people of the oppression and discrimination in their societies as well as its social and political impacts (Lee, 2007). Drawing from the understanding of Freire’s work, empowerment is vitally concerned with the structural barriers …show more content…

In other words empowerment is a process through which the marginalized individuals, groups and communities are enabled to access power to resources and to have overall control on their lives (Adams 2008). He further postulated that tower in this respective context has to do with the ability to access and control resources and people. The overall objective is of the empowerment theory is for the marginalized individuals, groups and communities to gain economic and sociopolitical liberation. From the understanding of the empowerment theory, one can see its positive relevance to South Africa’s decolonization and Africanization process. This can be so in that, a critical analysis on pre 1994 South Africa shows that the Republic was under white colonial rule of the National Party which sort to increase patterns of colonial discrimination of the Black South Africans through the devolution of political structures and the promotion of a putative independence in the African reserves …show more content…

According to Moulder 1995 in (Letseka et al, p.2013) “The discourse on African higher education that has appeared in the last decade depicts the inappropriateness and irrelevance of current curricula, which was introduced during the colonial era’. This has resulted in a different call for Africanisation of higher education. According to this argument, the Africanization of education can be conceptualized as the adaptation of the subject matter as well as teaching approaches defined to the physical and cultural realities of the African environment. Also at regional level, South Africa is a member of the Southern Africa Development Commit (SADC) which is a board narrowly defined and principled to uphold the interest of Afican countries in the South part politically, socially and economically , respecting difference in cultures (

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In The Legacy, Basil Davidson discusses the legacies of colonialism in Africa and gives an insight on modern Africa and the successes and downfalls that it possesses. Moreover, he states that many of the issues seen in modern day Africa are not new and have their roots in the long years of European colonialism that profoundly shaped and continues to shape the continent. Throughout the documentary, various themes regarding postcolonial Africa are mentioned in depth. A few of the themes that Davidson highlights are modernization, ethnicism, corruption, inequality, dictatorship, and neocolonialism.

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Europeans wanted to control the southern parts of africa to and soon they achieved this goal. European presence grow rapidly and soon in, 1865, the white population of the area had risen to about 200,000. Later in the 1880, British policy in south Africa was influenced by cecil Rhodes. And in 1910, the British created an independent union colony in south africa, which combined the old cape colony and the Boer republicans. Britsh later agreed that only whites could vote.

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It hurt their economy and many Africans suffered greatly. Imperialism also created a new racist system called Apartheid, which lasted for about 50 years. In the article, South Africa - The Story of Gold and Diamonds, it states, “In 1950, the Population Registration Act further divided the citizens of the country into “white” and “nonwhite” categories... The 1953 Education Act forced Africans out of white mission school and into state-run schools, where students were taught the significance of the ethnic differences separating the nonwhite communities. Other laws sought to limit contact between white and nonwhite communities by reserving employment for white workers and making provisions for separate public facilities for the different races” (Zrenda).

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In addition , the influence from abolishing apartheid wasn’t just that blacks received more rights ,but that the whole entire country had been changed into a democracy

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Kwame Nkrumah is known as a Ghanaian revolutionary. He was a politician, author, leader, and the first prime minister and president of Ghana, leading it to independence from Britain in 1957. He had a vision of how Africa could be united and work against imperialism while achieving a common goal of colonial freedom. In Towards Colonial Freedom, he delves straight into the topic of colonialism and how it affected Africa and his perception of African unity.

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Africa In World Politics: Engaging a Changing Global Order by John Harbenson and Donald Rothchild gives an analysis of how Africa has changed from being a European ruled colonial nation to a nation that it creating a name for itself in the global sphere. Beginning with Africa’s politics during the colonial era through the present. The book provides not only details about Africa but also how the changing world has affected African politics. The main focus of this book is to show the growth Africa has had since its time of colonization. Africa has grown as the world has changed although it has had to deal with internal conflicts and demands for political change due to its authoritarian regimes.

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So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

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Introduction Person-in-Environment Framework In our practice as social workers, we are urged to view and understand human behavior as a set of complex interactions between individuals and their environment. This is known as the person-in-environment framework. This framework encourages us to acknowledge the influence of environment on our lives and provides a beneficial framework to think about and understand human behavior (Hutchinson, 2017). Understanding our work from this perspective allows us to approach our clients from a multi-dimensional stance, taking into consideration how various factors, including but not limited to, race, class, age and gender create individual identity and shapes an individual’s experience in the context of

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Although empowerment theory is intended to alleviate the oppression of marginalized groups, there are no specific guidelines or procedures for doing so (Gutierrez et al., 1995). As a result, this theory may prove to be too abstract for some practitioners, as there are no specific processes for implementing empowerment in an individual, group, or community and it is a more open-ended

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The law remained in South Africa for more than 50 years. In 1991, the government of President F.W. de Klerk ended apartheid. While apartheid was ruling in South Africa, A South African activist named Nelson Mandela fight for the rights of the nonwhites. In this essay I will talk about why Apartheid emerged in South Africa, how Apartheid can develop and was accept in South Africa, The tragedy that was caused by Apartheid and Nelson Mandela’s role on ending apartheid. Introduction Apartheid is a popular government system in South Africa from 1948 to 1944.

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The survey states that four out of every ten South Africans believe that apartheid was not wrong in its oppressive actions, as well as one third of white South Africans believing that poverty in South Africa in the present day is not a result of apartheid (Wadvalla, 2013). Seeing that this data was gathered twenty years apart the first democratic election in South Africa,

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Introduction Apartheid was an official barrier which separated the different races in South Africa, namely the black South Africans and the white Afrikaans South Africans. Although Apartheid ended 20 years ago when Nelson Mandela was elected president, Apartheid still plays a large role in South African History. Apartheid began long before it was officially named Apartheid in 1948 by the leading political party, National Party. The separation between the black and white people of South Africa began around the time Jan Van Riebeek arrived in the Cape in 1652. Since then the segregation escalated due to events which caused hatred between the two races.

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Reda (2015) states “If we want to see the world as a just and fair place where everyone is given equal opportunities, education is what we require. Education is a must if we want to do away with the existing differences between different social classes and genders. It opens a whole world of opportunities for the poor so that they may have an equal shot at well-paying jobs.” Creating education in a democratic state has been aimed by many states, theorists, philosophers and so on. Countries in this era have succeeded is aiming for a democratic education, some are getting there and other countries fail in creating a democratic education.

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iii. Self-Determination: The autonomy in which an individual makes decisions about his work. iv. Impact: The degree in which an individual can influence strategic, administrative or operating outcomes at work (Ashforth, 1989). Empowerment forms according to Lashley (2001) include; i. Empowerment through participation; this means the delegation of decision-making from management arena, for example, the use of autonomous working groups.

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Maya Verdier Global Studies 2H Mr. Grace Set: 1 South African Apartheid Apartheid was the policy of segregation, political, and economic discrimination against non-European groups in South Africa. Apartheid was introduced in 1948 and created a tremendous turning point in South African history. South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the 17th century. The English and Dutch later became called Afrikaners, and these two groups had a power-share over Africa until the 1940’s. When the Afrikaner National Party gained a strong majority Apartheid was invented.

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